State Rep. Claire Levy meets with faculty to discuss concealed weapons on campus

September 24, 2012

State Rep. Claire Levy of Boulder addressed more than 30 faculty members on Friday, Sept. 21 about her hopes to introduce legislation that would allow the Board of Regents to set policies preventing concealed weapons on campus.

Levy spoke and took questions in the Visual Arts Complex on Friday in an hour-long session.

Levy began the forum by giving background on the issue and explaining her goals of the forum.

“I think it would be presumptuous of me to bring legislation forward without checking in with faculty to see ‘well, what is it you want,’” she said.

Throughout the discussion, several faculty members shared ideas about the potential legislation, while others shared their feelings about having guns in the classroom.

Ideas put forward by the audience included not implementing the law on the campus and thus facing the legal consequences, to encouraging Levy to propose a law that would bypass governing boards and add colleges and universities to K-12 schools that ban concealed carry.

Levy said it was up to CU on the issue of implementing or not implementing the law. She said bypassing governing boards and adding colleges and universities to legislation was not likely to succeed in the general assembly.

Other faculty members said they wanted more information about concealed weapons on campus. Overall, the faculty members present were supportive of Levy’s effort.

Levy said the challenge with proposing legislation is that it could quickly devolve into a question about second amendment rights, which is not her intent.

“I’m really just interested in this very simple question, which is who should make the decision about whether guns should be allowed on campus,” she said.

Susan Kent, chair of the history department, asked about the likelihood of legislation actually becoming law and wanted to know what faculty could do to assist.

“My question is what is the likelihood of the state legislature actually being willing to push through an amendment… and in that framework, what can CU faculty do to make that more likely,” Kent said.

Levy reiterated that if the issue turns into a pro-gun, anti-gun discussion, then it would be difficult to pass that kind of bill.

“I think it really needs to be a question of local control,” Levy said. “In terms of what you can do to help, I would really like the support of the administration…I would like them to say ‘yes we want this authority back.’”

Levy said she planned to meet this week with members of the administration, but added that a broad resolution of faculty support would be helpful in an effort to craft legislation.

She also has plans to reach out to alumni and the CU Parents Association.